Can i run an ATI 5770 or 5870 and one of these at the same time? That way I have one card optimized for gaming and one optimized for pro apps.

Asked by Patrick P from Omaha

Dec 16, 2010

NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac

Product No Longer Available

2 Answers from the Community

Best Answer:

My 2010 'Pro has a 5770 and a Quadro 4000 running side by side without problems, each one using one of the two motherboard 6-pin connectors. To have a 5870 and a 4000 would need additional power, and the easiest route is from the DVD bay using a suitable adaptor to convert to the required extra 6-pin PCI power cable. You can always supply additional power with an additional PSU, and in the past I have run a GTX 285 off the motherboard and a 480 (6-pin+8-pin) off an external PSU. I have ordered a GTX 580 to run next to my Q4000 on this basis.

Answered by William S

Feb 14, 2011

Quadro 4000 requires a single 6-pin power cable. Physically speaking, you can only add the ATI 5770 next to it, since the higher end ATI card requires both of the available power cables in the Mac Pro. I am *assuming* that Apple tests two cards from different vendors, so it should work. As far as the applications are concerned, pro apps and games should run on the card in which the screen is connected. So, even though it’s not ideal, you should probably have two displays, one for gaming and connected to the ATI card, and the other for pro apps, connected to the nvidia card.